Why does SEO take so long?

You may be wondering why it takes so long to rank. In this article, we'll cover some of the main reasons.

Natural process

We’ll start with explaining this. Things could maybe be done a tad quicker. And I really mean just a tad, because google does take time, but I’ll explain that below. The most important aspect to remember is that this has to look natural. Very few sites go from zero to hero overnight. Google will really look at those sites and search for justification. If that reason is that SEO engineers are “gaming” the system, you will be blacklisted from google. So notoriety and credibility of your site has to be built naturally over time, in order to not look unnatural. There’s an old Chinese proverb that says: the nail that sticks out gets hammered down. Or something along those lines. :)

Estimated numbers
The next item is the fact that all the numbers we’re using are pulled from sites that analyze google and generate averages and estimated calculations based on many factors which are in constant flux. While these numbers are the best way of estimating how much work needs to be done, they are still averages based on changing data.

Competition
Guess what? You’re not the only one trying to get to the top. Your competition is doing the same thing. So we’re racing to the top but trying not to be too fast to as to be flagged. That’s one heck of a catch isn’t it? Be fast but mot so fast you’ll be noticed.

Ever Evolving results
This one fits closely in with the competition. Everybody is trying to get to the top and new websites are being built all the time. A total of 118 new websites emerge every minute (2020 statistic).

Google algorithm updatesGoogle is god. Google decides what is important and what isn’t. They calculate this based on factors that are constantly evolving as the internet evolves and as the SEO’s continue to evolve. As technology progresses, machine learning improves and becomes a larger and larger part of the way google’s algorithm determines what’s relevant, what isn’t and who’s trying to game the system to get to the top. What worked last year doesn’t necessarily work this year. Sometimes, years worth of work can be eliminated overnight by google’s algorithm updates, and it’s necessary to start over. (See this article on starting a business in ottawa) Sometimes you are decreased in ranking and other times you are at the very bottom. If you’re methods were black hat or grey hat (not completely Ethical by google’s standards) you could be blacklisted. You might be wondering why someone would do anything black-hat or grey hat. There are 2 reasons for this. One may be that an SEO you’ve hired would want to under promise and over deliver, which would have you telling everybody about her. The other reason is that your SEO may not have been honest or diligent enough to tell you how much time it would take to achieve said rank. This is why it is important to really explain to clients that this is a marathon, not a 100m dash. If you go too fast too soon, you’re going to be in a lot of trouble. It is for this reason that we recommend, to those of our clients looking to get more leads immediately, to consider adding Pay-per-click marketing to their package. Slow and steady wins the race, just like many other things. Click here for more information on why SEO takes so long.

Negative SEO
Negative SEO is something we wish didn’t exist, but does. We believe that people that practice this eventually get what’s coming to them, but it’s still frustrating. There’s a saying that goes along the lines of “If you keep looking over your shoulder at the other guy, you’ll eventually walk into a lamp post”. While it’s important to track the competition, one should focus on her own efforts rather than be in constant worry about the competition. You might now be catching on that Negative SEO is unethical and unfair. It is the practice of sabotaging a competitor’s brand by practicing black-hat methods which google will flag and penalize, as they assume you’re doing it, rather than your competition.

Google Indexing
This last one is quite simple. Indexing is the process of Google updating its search engine results. Google is a searchable index of the internet. Just like a library, it has to index everything and keep a system to track it. Everything done on google needs to go through this indexing process. With the billions of websites available, this isn’t an overnight thing. So everything that is done takes weeks, if not more, to be recognized by google. This makes everything move a lot slower.

We wrote an article about this called SEO Sucks. Check it out here.

An article you may have posted to your site which you believe would be of value to many people may not see the light of google for quite some time. Be patient while google indexes this for you.

We hope this article was helpful in understanding why SEO takes so much time, but why it’s so worth it in the end.

If you have any questions, please feel free to call or email us and we’ll answer your questions as best we can.

Advice is free!